“April 11 at 7 pm, I'll be speaking about Lincoln with the Friends of the Hull Library at the Mary Jeanette Murray Bathhouse,” says author William Martin. “Saturday, April 13, at 2 pm, I'll be celebrating at the Maynard Library Festival of Authors; Thursday, April 18, at 7 pm at the Southborough Library, I'll be talking about my career-long relationship with the character named Peter Fallon. And there's more. Check my website.”

“In town, it's the Harvard Coop,” says author William Martin of his go-to local bookstore. “Great service, great selection, and... all right, I'll be honest: ever since Harvard Yard came out in '03, they've given my books the best retailing spot in Greater Boston. You'll find a whole rack of Martin titles at the top of the stairs, right at the entry to the fiction section. That is wonderful support. I also love the New England Mobile Book Fair in Newton, one of the great places for book browsing in New England or anywhere else. And every town should have a shop window from which new books beckon readers inside, which is what Wellesley Books offers in Metrowest.”   

“Someone once said that his best advice to young writers was, if you think you can do something other than write, do it, and if you can't, you're a writer,” says author William Martin. “I would add that if you must write, write every day. And don't just write what you know. Write what you want to know, and where you want to go, and who you want to meet when you get there. And don't give up. The odds against you are long. But the world will always need its storytellers. If not you, then who?”

“Check my website in July to see if the Aloha Writers Conference is getting a January return engagement in Maui. Then sign up. You'll get some great instruction (maybe from me), the sun will be directly overhead, and the whales will be calving off Lahaina,” says author William Martin. “As for books, How to Write a Selling Screenplay by Christopher Keane, screenwriter, novelist, and long-time writing teacher, contains terrific advice on structure, lessons that pertain to novels as well as movies. And Stephen King's On Writing is filled with insights into King himself and the craft he mastered.”   

History buffs looking for more on Lincoln, listen up. “I assume that most cultists have read Doris Goodwin's Team of Rivals and seen the Spielberg movie, so let me go deeper. Read Reveille in Washington, the 1942 Pulitzer Prize winner by Margaret Leech. It's a social history of Washington during the four years of the Lincoln administration,” says author William Martin. “Read Lincoln's Sanctuary by Matthew Pinsker, a fascinating account of Lincoln's life at the Soldiers’ Home during the Civil War summers. And for movies, go way back to 1935 and John Ford's The Prisoner of Shark Island. It's the story of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who sets Booth's broken leg and is sent to prison as a result. (And gave birth to the expression ‘His name is Mudd.’ No joke.) The film is hard to find, but it opens unforgettably with Lincoln's speech on April 11, 1865, then follows Lincoln to the theater four days later. And don't forget Ford's 1939 masterpiece, Young Mr. Lincoln, with Henry Fonda in the title role as the jackleg lawyer.”